


A Name

by assortedpencils



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Dawn Age, Gen, pre game, teacher-student dynamic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 16:04:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6246592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assortedpencils/pseuds/assortedpencils
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A professor and his pupil have a discussion about the future, and the power that it takes to change it. </p>
<p>A short story for Lorelei day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Name

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Lorelei day c: 
> 
> I wanted to try writing something instead of drawing this year. This is set back in the Dawn Age before Yulia makes her pact with Lorelei. This is 98% headcanon with 2% of facts from the ToA timeline thrown in.

“I know who you are, Dr. Southern-Cross.”

Stunned was a good word to describe just how I felt at the time. I remember standing there in the laboratory that had been granted to me for my research, the constant hum of dawn tech and new fon machines filling the air. Yulia had just turned fourteen that year, and had been my apprentice for five years, training and studying with me. She had been born with a most unusual gift- one that allowed her to glean knowledge of the future in her dreams at the cost of being ostracized by the community- a gift that I personally taught her to hone, among other things.

She stood there on the opposite side of the laboratory, a serious expression worn on her face as she stared at me, watching me. I stood still for a few moments in shock, momentarily blindsided by her announcement. To think she had used that gift of hers to see through my guise, and at such a tender age. Not once in any of the futures I had predicted had she been the one to discover me.

“Is that so?” I asked, crossing my arms. She nodded once. “Perhaps I taught you too well.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment in my abilities.” Yulia softened her expression a tad. “I wonder, though: why are you here?”

“A good question. The short answer is you.”

“And the long answer?”

“Tell me, what are seventh fonons?” She looked slightly puzzled by my question.

“A combination of the first six fonons and memory particles.” She answered, looking at me as if that was the most basic question there was. She was a highly gifted fonist, after all.

“And tell me, what are memory particles?”

“Fragments of the planet’s memory. I don’t understand what this has to do with me, though.” She blinked twice, trying to hide her mild agitation and impatience. As mature and almost otherworldly as she could be, Yulia had still been just a child at the time.

“The planet’s memory,” I started, glancing upwards to the laboratory’s only window, “is vast and expansive. Every event, past, present, and future, is recorded in these memory particles. I’ve known about you, and your abilities, long before you were ever born, and I know just how you will come to reforge the entire world. I’ve been carefully laying out the proper foundation for you to stand upon for decades now.”

“Is that why you’ve taken a mortal form? Is my ability really so important?” She looked nervous; who could blame her? A grand destiny weighed heavily upon her shoulders, one she could not possibly comprehend, not yet anyways.

“Yes.” I nodded. “You have the power, the potential, to change everything. Humanity has accelerated this world’s decline rapidly with this Fonic War, and at the rate of strain each of those infernal machines puts on the core, more and more miasma will flood the world.”

Yulia bit her bottom lip and downcast her gaze. Absentmindedly, she reached out towards the nearby table and started to pet the laboratory's cheagle in a vain attempt to calm down. She had always been fond of those creatures.

“You can stop the war and the damage it’s causing. I can help you.”

“A pact,” she said quietly. “I’ve seen it in my dreams many times, but I never understood just what it meant until now. I’m to make a pact with you; my dreams always come true.”

I stared at her again with surprise. Once more, this was something I hadn’t been able to foresee her knowing. This gift of hers was truly something of an anomaly, and that made her interesting. “Yes.” I nodded.

“Dr. Southern-Cross.” She withdrew her hand from the pink cheagle and looked at me again. “If we’re to work together, I think it’s only fair if you tell me your real name.”

I chuckled. “Your gift of prophecy allowed you to discern my identity but not my real name?”

“You should know better than anyone my gift is not always straightforward.” She folded her hands together and a sweet smile came to her face.

“I don’t have a name.”

Yulia frowned. “You don’t have a true name?” I shook my head. After all, I had only just ‘discovered’ the existence of seventh fonons twelve years ago and it was mortals who gave the sentients their names. The world hasn’t had time to adjust, or accept a new sentience that oversaw them. My very existence at the time was still considered to be hypothetical. “That won’t do, everyone needs a name. You’re not you without it.” Such childish logic. “...Lorelei.”

“Lorelei?” I repeated and she nodded.

“Yes. You’re the aggregate sentience of the fonon of sound, and Lorelei means ‘To Sing’ in Ispanian. In my dreams of the pact, I would sing a grand hymn in order to summon you. It’s a name that feels appropriate.”

“It’s a lovely name, one I would be proud to bear.”

She couldn’t hide the excited grin from coming to her face. “Does this mean that I still have to call you Dr. Southern-Cross?”

“When we’re in polite company,” I mused. “I still have some work to be done in this form, and I’d rather not have my identity be revealed. Being a revered scientist has its many perks, and is a position of advantage I’d like to keep.”

“Alright, Lorelei.” She was still smiling. “I look forward to working with you.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere if you didn’t finish that report I gave you last week.” I warned and her smile vanished.

“W-what? I finished it!”

“Good, then you’ll be able to use the formula you researched to solve the equation I wrote down on the board.” I gestured to the far wall of the laboratory where the blackboard hung. She was still, after all, my student.

“Yes, sir.” She turned and made her way over to the board.

While she wrote out the formula and plugged it into the equation, I leaned back against my desk and watched with amusement. “Enjoy this time of boring peace while you still can. It won’t be long now before everything’s changed.” I had muttered aloud to myself.

“Hm?” She looked back over at me with a quirked brow.

“It’s nothing. Please, continue.” I gestured back to the board.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “You’re so weird, Lorelei.”

“You know fonic properties: like attracts like. It’s really no wonder why I am drawn to you.” I had teased. “When the time comes, I look forward to hearing your song.”

Her cheeks tinted the slightest shade of pink and she quickly turned back around to face the board, resuming her work on the equation.


End file.
